Day 46 - June 18 - Mountain Park Campground, CO to Aspen Glen Campground, CO - Two Old Guys Take On A Continent

June 18, 2023

Day 46 - June 18 - Mountain Park Campground, CO to Aspen Glen Campground, CO

Headwind! Climbing! Elevation! Oh, My!!

John’s Story

At 2:00 AM I got out of the tent to use the facilities and was awed by the starlit sky. We were in the bottom of a deep canyon miles from anywhere. There was no moon. The only ambient light came from a few RVs. It was stunning. If it weren’t so cold I would have lingered longer. I haven’t seen the sky like that since I camped at Rush on the Buffalo National River in northern Arkansas. Wow! No use trying to take a picture with an iPhone. It wouldn’t have done it justice.

Because I expected a cold morning I put all of the clothes I planned to wear today into the sleeping bag with me last night. It made it a lot more comfortable to get dressed this morning compared to donning clothes that had lain loose in the tent overnight. It warmed up quickly this morning after the sun came over the rim of the canyon, and it wasn’t long on the road before I was peeling off layers. It was our latest start on the tour, a little after 8:00 AM. We saw no reason to leave early since we wanted to stop at Glen Echo for coffee and wireless.

The sunlight is slowly creeping down into the canyon this morning. It was about 40 degrees this morning, and the warming sun was welcome when it got here.

I actually saw these lavender flowers on a shrub yesterday, but too late to put in the journal.

I’m addition to the bear boxes at each campsite, the campground has bear resistant dumpsters as well. Opening one generally involves opening a carabiner that has been threaded through a latch. Thank goodness bears don’t have opposable thumbs.

I saw a meteorological phenomenon this morning that I’ve really only seen in photographs: lenticular clouds. Sometimes when cloudless air is pushed up by flowing over the top of a mountain the change in temperature and pressure causes the water vapor in the air to condense into a cloud. When the air flows back to a lower level past the mountain the clouds disappear as the water droplets turn back into water vapor. These lenticular clouds remain fixed over the mountain causing the uplift, while other clouds move along with the prevailing winds.

Sunrise hasn’t reached the bottom of the canyon here. More interesting clouds in the background.

I don’t know why that dark cloud over the distant mountain isn’t lit by the sun.

Glen Echo is where people in these parts, including campers like us, go to use the free wireless provided by the resort. Most folks have no other alternative to connect wirelessly to the outside world. Our campground host last night had a StarLink system. She said it cost $700 to set up and $150 per month for the service.

The Glen Echo resort is pretty much everything to everybody in this out of the way spot.

While I was preparing to hit the road again from Glen Echo, a completely enclosed recumbent bicycle passed by going up the canyon. It caused quite a stir among the folks outside. We never saw it again today so it may have gone all the way over Cameron Pass. [Late Breaking News: Saw the beast the next day south of Walden headed in the opposite direction like a bat out of hell into a heavy headwind.]

Large parts of the canyon have burned in past years. Several times we saw signs warning that we were entering a burned area and to stay on the roads and trails, apparently to avoid causing debris slides where the fires have destabilized the slopes.

This fireplace and chimney are all that’s left of a home in the canyon following a wildfire. Many times I saw signs in front of homes and business that did not burn thanking the firefighters who saved them.

This was the scene across the road from the remains of the burned home.

The second oddest thing in this picture is the cloud formation behind Ed. It likes like another type of lenticular loud. In books about UFOs, pictures like these are used to suggest that some sightings are just unusually shaped clouds.

Can you see why they named this feature Sleeping Elephant Mountain? Hint: the trunk and head are on he left.

Poudre Falls. Aiden, I finally found a waterfall for you.

I believe the Cache la Poudre River is the only river in Colorado that is part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

Shortly after we left GlenEcho, a headwind leaped up. I say leaped because the wind at times was intense. I’m sure that it was blowing a steady 30 mph with a few gusts to 50. It slowed us down tremendously and once ground us to a halt. It was not in the forecast. The wind was constantly in our face, even as the canyon wound around. It must have been flowing down the canyon rather than across it. Eventually as the canyon widened into a park the wind abated some. Ed says that wind is forecast for tomorrow. Well, we don’t want this to be too easy, do we?

We made more rest stops than usual due to the wind. This one was just 1.2 miles from Aspen Glen Campground, where we camped tonight. I would caption the picture: Before the Final Push.

When we arrived at Aspen Glen, we found an RV with two men and one woman, a Newfie and a husky. We introduced ourselves to our neighbors and met the dogs. The two men grew up in Oklahoma City but left years ago. They immediately offered us a beer, so Kevin, Patrick, Melinda, Nova the Newfie and Osa the husky share today’s Road Angel Award. There was one other unattended tent in the campground when we arrived, but a couple other campers have arrived since.

A tiny grasshopper tried to sneak into the tent on my sleeping pad.

In the mountains the dandelion is not a weed. It is a wildflower.

Not dandelions, it mixed in with them (and a bug for you, Aiden, if you can find it).

Aspen Glen has 8 campsites with picnic tables and bear boxes, a vault toilet and an old fashioned hand pump for water.

It rained a few drops on us several times today, including here in camp, but the forecast is for no rain. I expect to see cloudless skies again later tonight and tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

Oh, and after carrying it for six weeks I finally started reading James Michener’s Hawaii yesterday. It was originally published in 1959. The beginning of the book is a poetic description of the geologic history of the islands, but poetic or not, he (or the grad student who did the research for him) did not get it right. Modern theories of plate tectonics were just evolving then, and Michener’s description is out of date, but still a pleasure to read.

Ed’s Story

We slept in until 6:30 this morning. I knew we only had 27 miles to go, but regardless, it will be a tough day due to the climbing we had to do.

A typical morning occurred: packed up; ate breakfast, pump up the tires, loaded up bikes, and left the area. I think right away we knew today would have been tougher than yesterday.

Once we started, the grades were steeper than yesterday. Yesterday they averaged 2 to 3%; today they were on the range of 3 to 5%. Additionally, shortly after we started the wind picked up.

There was a massive headwind going 20 to 30 miles an hour with gusts much more than that. There was several times where we made a turn, and the wind just stopped me from peddling and I had to put my feet down. Otherwise, I think I would’ve blown over.

We stopped at about the 8 mile point in Rustic, Colorado at the Glen Echo resort. We both had hashbrowns, but with different toppings on it. We also had coffee. This was a nice long break.

The restaurant had Wi-Fi. I was able to login, catch up on text messages, email, and Facebook. Got a Father’s Day greeting from my daughter Jane. Additionally my son Patrick texted me and asked me to call him. I did so, and he wished me a happy Father’s Day and I caught him up on what we were doing and what had been going on with him.

I let my family know I might be back online sporadically tomorrow afternoon (Monday). Cell service in this part of the country is still sketchy.

I got pretty bored sitting around the campground last night, even with walking occasionally. While we were eating I downloaded 2 movies to my phone from Netflix to watch this evening.

At breakfast this morning we are having problems with our lighters. Hopefully we will have better luck in the future. There’s nothing worse on a cold morning than not having a warm breakfast.

We headed out again into the hills and into the wind. It did not get any easier the rest of the day as far as I’m concerned.

We made a brief stop at the Arrowhead Lodge visitor center. This center is run by the national park service manned by volunteers. It was there we saw that the Aspen Glen campsite was still 15 miles away.

We continued on fighting the hills and fighting the wind. We stopped at a store just shy of the Trading Post Resort. We sat in some comfy chairs; watched Walker, Texas, Ranger; and drank orange juice. I probably had a snack there as I needed to keep my energy up.

From there it was about six more miles to the Aspen Glen campground. To be honest, I was getting tired. I was slowing down and stopping more and more. It was a combination of the wind, the hills, and the altitude (less oxygen).

We made one last stop at the Big South Campground. We were 1.2 miles from Aspen Glen. We met a couple there with their new Ibis camper van. In the back there are two levels of beds, so it sleeps about 5 to 6. It has a 15 gallon water tank. They recently bought it just to be able to do some light touring. They refilled my one empty water bottle.

Cache la Poudre continues flowing downhill.

The Big South trail and its surroundings.

We continued that last 1.2 miles. I actually stopped once in that distance. The winds picked up and the elevation grade continued to be at the 4 to 5% range. I have been operating in granny gear for at least 4 to 5 miles.

The campsite we are at is nice. It has a pad for one tent. John and I flipped a coin to see who got it and I won. His tent is still set up on level ground, however.

Map of the campground…we are in location #2.

Storm clouds over the horizon but we only got sprinkled on a few times.

When we showed up there was one other set of campers here. They were Melinda, Kevin, and Patrick. They had two dogs with them. They offered us a beer, which was very tasty.

I had to sit down several times while drinking a beer because it was making me lightheaded. I did not have much to eat by that time.

Back at our site, we set up our tents and I had lunch. I felt much better, but do not think I could drink another beer without passing out. Maybe it’s the altitude. I don’t know.

I see tomorrow as being a tough day. We have to ride 10 miles to get to the top of Cameron Pass. The elevation grade ranges from 0 - 10%. We have to climb almost 1600 feet in those 10 miles. I anticipate being in granny gear the entire way. I will probably be stopping every half mile to mile to recover. I will probably even cross train, or should I say, walk part of the time.

Of course, after we achieve Cameron, and take the obligatory photo at the top (trying to smile), we have a 2200 ft descent over about 28 miles. It should be much easier going downhill than up.

We hope to stay in the Walden City Park. The pool next to the park has showers and there is a laundromat and grocery store in town.

We have had several spurts of rain on our ride today. In fact, as I sit in the tent, dictating this journal, it is trying to rain. I do not think there will be much as the weather forecast showed low probability of continuous rain.

I went to the tent early to watch Unbroken, the movie about the pilot in WW2 Pacific Ocean shot down and captured by the Japanese.

Didn’t finish when I went to bed.

Until tomorrow, happy biking!

Today's ride: 27 miles (43 km)
Total: 1,823 miles (2,934 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	6
Comment on this entry	Comment	0